NASHVILLE, Tenn. — If the San Francisco Giants had fallen out of the playoffs quietly in the first round and not won the 2012 World Series, perhaps Angel Pagan could have been a Phillie.

Sometimes reality hurts. And thanks to the Giants’ magical run to a title, Pagan’s value rose. And it rose highest in the eyes of the team he helped win a title.

Although the Phillies made a real and purposeful run at Pagan as their center-field solution, the free agent returned to San Francisco on a four-year contract said to be worth $40 million. That sent Phils general manager and his staff back to the drawing board. After making a halfhearted offer to B.J. Upton that was blown out of the water by the Braves, the Phillies made a much more aggressive effort for Pagan, pushing his deal length to four years after the Giants tried to get him with a three-year contract.

Amaro agreed Pagan’s value jumped because of the role he played on a championship team. It also made his return a priority for San Francisco.

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“I think it did,” Amaro said, “because now (Pagan) is an experienced champion. It makes a difference. If you want to win championships you want to have as many experienced champions as you can.

“He’s off the market. We move on.”

The big question at this stage is: Where do they move?

For familiarity’s sake, let’s open that conversation with a pair of former Phillies who are free agents, Michael Bourn and Shane Victorino. Bourn is represented by Scott Boras and, no surprise, has pie-in-the-sky contract expectations that are fluffed by his agent. The Phillies have a long, contentious and chilly relationship with Boras. Last year when they were getting haggled hard by Boras about a contract for Ryan Madson, they abruptly pivoted and gave their high-end closer money to Jonathan Papelbon. That didn’t help matters, and it was a sign that the Phillies aren’t long for Boras’ tactics. But there could come a point where Bourn and the Phillies are the only players on the free-agent market without a dance partner, so …

As for Victorino, who was having a subpar season for the Phils when they traded him at midseason to the Dodgers (where is season got even worse), it seems the odds of him returning to Philadelphia are even slimmer than Bourn’s.

After Amaro acknowledged Victorino is, “another experienced champion. So he has that going for him,” he also hinted strongly that the trade last season was about turning a page, saying that the familiarity the organization has with his virtues and vices is, “good and bad.”

“Obviously we have a great familiarity with Shane, there’s no question about that,” Amaro said. “He’s a free agent who has not signed with anyone. As I said, you can’t rule anything out in the position we’re in. So we’ll keep our minds open about everyone, including Shane.”

The truth is that there are a lot of names out there, but all of them have their down sides. Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton has a ton of talent, but a checkered past. (“No,” Amaro said when asked if he visited with Hamilton’s camp to talk over a deal, “but I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”) Dexter Fowler, the Rockies center fielder about whom the Phillies have inquired as Colorado dangles him as trade bait, has terrible home/away statistical splits and strikes out a ton – damning trends for players who leave Coors Field and fizzle.

Pagan by all accounts was a part of the Phils’ best-case scenario plan. But that wasn’t exactly a vision quest, either.

“We didn’t really have a Plan A,” he said. “We had like 10 Plan B’s because, to be frank with you, I just didn’t think that the marketplace was all that strong in the beginning …There were some good players out there, and there still are some good players out there. But I don’t know there’s a difference maker.

“Maybe one.”

Maybe that “maybe one” left the door open for Bourn or Hamilton. But Amaro also went so far as to say this lackluster free-agent market could send him in a radically different direction.

“The job at hand is to improve the club, whether it’s a little or a lot,” Amaro said. “I’d rather it be a lot than a little ... that’s why we have to be creative and maybe put the money into pitching and make a strength (of the team) stronger. That’s always a possibility.”

At this point, the possibilities are endless, if only because no possibility is without a flaw.